PORT ELIZABETH, South Africa, (Reuters) – A metal sculpture overlooks the ocean on South Africa’s southern coast, showing Nelson Mandela with his fist triumphantly thrust into the air and a sweeping line of diverse figures waiting to vote.
The monument in Port Elizabeth, capital of the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality, commemorates the jubilant day in 1994 when South Africa held its first multi-racial elections, overwhelmingly voting the African National Congress (ANC) and Mandela into power.
At local elections this week the atmosphere is expected to be far more subdued, with ANC supporters increasingly frustrated at a lack of jobs and basic services as Africa’s most industrialised country teeters on the edge of a recession, and disenchanted at perceived corruption in the ruling party.
Opinion polls suggest the vote on Wednesday could herald a sea change in South African society and politics. The ANC could lose major cities it has held virtually unchallenged since the end of white-minority rule 22 years ago.
Such an historic reversal could reshape the political playing field ahead of the 2019 general election, and may also embolden President Jacob Zuma’s rivals within the ANC to challenge him.
With a quarter of South Africa’s potential workforce unemployed and the jobless rate among black people aged 20-24 at almost half, millions of voters say their lives have barely improved since the ANC won power in 1994.
Many supporters are switching allegiances to the main opposition Democratic Alliance (DA), bolstering its attempts to attract black voters and shake off its image of a party that chiefly serves the interests of the minority white community.
This kind of defection – an unthinkable prospect in years gone by – is now being considered across the country, even in symbolic heartlands like Nelson Mandela Bay.
“In past elections the DA wouldn’t dare to come here,” 25-year old IT graduate Zodwa Twani told Reuters from a rundown township in Port Elizabeth where DA placards line the streets alongside images of President Jacob Zuma.
“I loved the ANC but now they only focus on themselves, not the people. Mandela would have been ashamed,” Twani added, standing in a pot-holed street in a ward where the ANC won 80 percent of the vote five years ago and the DA barely registered.
The ANC won 52 percent at the 2011 local election in Mandela Bay municipality overall, compared with the DA’s 40 percent, but opinion polls suggest it could struggle to win a majority on Wednesday.
